1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a method for enabling a person to use their mobile phone to setup a call between a near land-line phone (which the person will utilize instead of the mobile phone) and a called party's phone.
2. Description of Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART), there is a diagram which is used to help explain today's price structure that is associated with using a mobile phone 102 to make a call to another mobile phone 104, a land-line phone 106 or an enterprise phone 108. In one scenario, assume the mobile phone 102 is located in a public network A (in this example a home network) and is used to make an outbound call 110 to the mobile phone 104 which is located in a public network B (in this example an international network). The user of mobile phone 102 would be charged a “high” price for making an international mobile call 110 to mobile phone 104. In contrast, if the user had used a land-line phone instead of the mobile phone 102 to make this international call then they would have been charged a much “lower” price.
In another scenario, assume the mobile phone 102 is located in a public network A (in this example an international network) and is used to make an outbound call 112 to the land-line phone 106 which is located in a public network B (in this example a home network). The user of mobile phone 102 would be charged a “high” price for making a roaming international mobile call to the land-line phone 106. In contrast, if the user had used a land-line phone instead of the mobile phone 102 to make the international call then they would not have been charged for mobile roaming plus they would have been charged a much “lower” price.
In yet another scenario, assume the mobile phone 102 is located in a public network A (in this example an international network) and is used to make a conference call 114 to the land-line phone 106 which is located in a public network B (in this example a home network) and to the enterprise phone 108 which is associated with an enterprise switch 116 (e.g., private branch exchange (PBX) 116) that is located in a private network C. In this case, the user of mobile phone 102 would be charged a “high” price and double minutes for making a roaming international mobile conference call to both the land-line phone 106 and the enterprise phone 108. In contrast, if the user had used a land-line phone instead of the mobile phone 102 to make the conference call then they would not have used twice the minutes plus they would have been charged a much “lower” price.
Of course, there are many other scenarios which have not been discussed herein in which the user of the mobile phone 102 would be charged a relatively “high” fee for making an outbound call and/or receiving an inbound call. In contrast, it is usually relatively inexpensive for a user to use a land-line phone rather than their mobile phone 102 to make calls both nationally and internationally. Thus, there has been in interest in reducing the costs associated with using the mobile phone 102 by enabling a user of the mobile phone 102 to take advantage of today's price structure that is associated with land-line phone calls. One service that addresses this need is known as Cellular Extension and is used today by businesses to help them reduce the mobile costs associated with their employees using the company's mobile phones. A brief explanation describing the known Cellular Extension service is provided next with respect to FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART).
Referring to FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART), there is a diagram which is used to help discuss the basic features/drawbacks that are associated with the known Cellular Extension service (which was developed by Alcatel). Basically, the user of a mobile phone 202 located in a public network A would make a voice call 204 to a PBX 206 which is located in a private network C. The PBX 206 would recognize the user of the mobile phone 202 and would provide the user with a dial tone which originates at the PBX 206. Then, the user could use their mobile phone 202 and that dial tone to make a call to another mobile phone 208 (located in public network B), a land-line phone 210 (located in public network B), or an enterprise phone 212 (associated with the PBX 206). In particular, the user of the mobile phone 202 could respond to a voice prompt from the PBX 206 and inform the PBX 206 that they want to call the land-line phone 210 (for instance) and then say the telephone number of the land-line phone 210 or use Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals (i.e., press buttons on the mobile phone 102) to indicate the telephone number of the land-line phone 210. The PBX 206 would then establish a voice call 214 and connect the mobile phone 202 to the land-line phone 210. As can be seen, there are two voice connections 204 and 214 which are used to connect the mobile phone 202 to the land-line phone 210.
An advantage of this service is that the voice connection 214 between the PBX 206 and the land-line phone 210 is not a mobile call and as such is not charged as being a mobile call. However, the user of the mobile phone 202 is still charged for using minutes and possibly roaming (if the public network A is not their home network or is an international network) while they use the voice connection 204 for the duration of the call to the land-line phone 210. To address this drawback, Sonamobile Inc. has introduced a service known as Call Master which enables a person to use their mobile phone to setup a call between a near land-line phone (which the person will later utilize instead of their mobile phone) and a called party's phone. A brief explanation describing the known Call Master service is provided next with respect to FIG. 3 (PRIOR ART).
Referring to FIG. 3 (PRIOR ART), there is a diagram which is used to help discuss the basic features/drawbacks that are associated with the known Call Master service. Basically, the user of a mobile phone 302 (“smart” mobile phone 302) located in a public network A would make a data call 304 to a server 305 (e.g., Alcatel's Advance Communication Server 305) which is associated with a PBX 306 shown located in a private network C. Once the user of the mobile phone 302 contacts the server 306 then they can inform the server 305 that they want to call a mobile phone 308 (which is shown located in a public network B). Alternatively, the user of the mobile phone 302 can inform the server 305 that they want to call a land-line phone 310 (located in public network B), or an enterprise phone 312 (associated with the PBX 306).
More specifically, the user of the mobile phone 302 would use a graphical user interface (GUI) and possibly a menu in their mobile phone 302 to send the telephone number of the mobile phone 308 over the data channel 304 to the server 305. In addition, the user of the mobile phone 302 would use the GUI and possibly the menu in their mobile phone 302 to send the telephone number of a convenient phone 311 (which is typically a land-line phone 311 that they will use to talk with a person associated with mobile phone 308) over the data channel 304 to the server 305. Generally, the user would interface with their phone directory in the mobile phone 302 to select and send the telephone numbers of the destination mobile phone 308 and the convenient phone 311 over the data channel 304 to the server 305 (typically 1-2 Kb of bandwidth on the data channel 304 would be used to send this information to the server 305).
At this point, the server 305 would instruct the PBX 306 to establish a voice connection 312 between itself and the convenient phone 311 and to establish a voice connection 314 between itself and the destination mobile phone 308. Thereafter, the user of the mobile phone 302 would discontinue the data call 304 to the server 305 and use the convenient phone 311 to talk via the voice connections 312 and 314 with the user of the destination mobile phone 310. An advantage of this service is that the user would use the “less expensive” convenient land-line phone 311 (and not their mobile phone 302) to talk with the user of destination mobile phone 308 (or destination phones 310 and 312). Another advantage of this service is that the user of the mobile phone 302 would not use any of their voice minutes to setup the call with the server 305. However, this service has several drawbacks including (for example): (1) not all mobile phones 302 have the capability to setup and use a data channel 304; (2) not all networks have a data capability that is commonly associated with 3G, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhance Data Rate for GSM Environment (EDGE) etc.; and (3) the user of the mobile phone 302 needs to subscribe and pay a fee to use a data service that is associated with 3G, GPRS, EDGE, etc. . . . . Accordingly, there is a need to address these shortcomings and other shortcomings which are associated with the known services like the Cellular Extension service and the Call Master service. This particular need and other needs are satisfied by the present invention.